Flying with Broken Wings
by Riku of Darkness
Summary: 30 minute challenges written at Writing Circle. Challenges based on theme, selected randomly, new theme each week. Riku was my model. If you want something quick to read, check 'em out. I assure you, they'll carry you away...on Broken Wings
1. Flying on Broken Wings

Yes, I am alive. Frightening, huh? I'll be brief, so's that the editors don't crucify me.

These were written as challenges in Writing Circle of the FLASH club (Fantasy, Literature, Anime, Sci-Fi, Horror ----- Creepy, no?), but you know my love of Riku and how I must use him as the target of said challenges. Each week had a different theme, which I will indicate in the following chapters. I have excluded the vampire challenge, because although Riku was my model, there was no proof of him being in it. If there's a high enough demand, I will include it with additions.

Dedications will be included with the challenge. I might not give reasons as to why I'm dedicating to some people. I just love them and their dedication. That is reason enough.

Dedication for the following poem goes out to my main poem gals, **_Zanisha_** and **_aliasfan_**. If there are others out there, I apologize -- I only remember a high volume from these two.

I promise to read updates of others very soon. I'm just posting while I have the chance.

And here's a tidbit of writing so that I don't get accused of posting an author note chapter.

* * *

**_Flying with Broken Wings_**

* * *

_My eyes tear  
It is worse than I fear  
Silent sound  
I can't lift off the ground_

_Shoulders ache  
My heart about to break  
Only way  
My spirit soon to fray_

_Have to try  
Can never explain why  
__Twilit night  
Broken wings can't take flight _

_Pure darkness  
Stills the heart, soon lifeless  
Their hatred  
Paints feathers, stain them dead_

_Endless song  
Must forever move on  
Stabbing flaps  
Tears unfelt, I'll adapt _

**I always do**

Lost to dreams  
Held away, or so they seem  
Foolish things  
Flying with broken wings  
_  
_


	2. Colourless Green

Today's challenge - Fall Colours. And go!

This one was hard because I wanted to write with Riku. Hm, do palm trees change colour in autumn? Dunno.

I just realized now that the island Kairi was on in KH2 was experiencing autumn (correct me if I'm wrong), so really, this theory is now pointless. However, ignoring that fact, I wrote this with the impression that Riku had never seen autumn. I wanted him to have reason to want off of Destiny Island, besides the emo instigator that his life was boring.

**Dedication:** xAkix. Why? Because I felt like it.

**_-_**

_It's the simple things that impress us'. I beg you to define 'simple'._

* * *

**_Colourless Green_**

* * *

His sigh wasn't heard by anything in particular, carried away by the ceaseless waves that caressed the beach. He closed his book with soft annoyance, but his sea salt eyes gleamed with dissatisfaction.

After a moment, Riku looked down at the sepia trunk he was sitting on. The colour felt warm, skewing his perception only a little. Warm, yes, but still autumn-like.

His eyes traveled up the trunk, taking in everything he could about the colour. It still felt warm even though the season meant impending cold. He shook it off, focusing upon the hue.

Riku soon found the bright citron fruit dangling at the tree's peak. The star shape stood waving down at him, happy to see the smile forming across his lips.

But it wasn't to last. Happiness fled, like a sand castle built to perfection decaying beneath the waves. The vibrant viridian was too obvious to ignore, wrapping its leaves around the Paopu fruit in a possessive embrace. They were always that brilliant, never hindered. It was

_disappointing…_

Riku sighed again and turned his ocean-tinted eyes back to the water that still swished around him.

'_They never change._' His heart felt heavy as it searched memories in vain.

'_They never rust or dabble in the costume of another hue._' Riku tossed open his book again and looked at the images without love.

'_Where were these taken? These trees with such colours of flame and tarnish?_' He let the book tumble to the ground, the pages hiding from his longing eyes.

'_I wonder if I'll find them out there? Find the season of colour?_" Riku's eyes traced the horizon, his heart pulsing emphatically.

'_Away from this place of static…colourless green._'


	3. Break My Heart

Theme - Death. May the sobbing commence.

Riku was broody after I killed him, but that's divine retribution for me. Don't ask me why or where this plot came from. I just had the image of Riku's death and the rest followed suit. No, I don't always think about how Riku should die o0

**Dedication:** Astaldotholwen.

**_-_**

_It's inevitable. We all die sometime. But who decided sometime meant now?_

* * *

_**Break My Heart**_

* * *

The trails moved with a mocking drag. They wanted to test the speed of annoyance. Nerve endings wailed at their origin, distracting. The crimson tears took little notice, obsessed over the battle-worn flesh of their host.

Riku drove the heel of his palm across his cheek, streaking scarlet across the pale canvas. He thought back to his decision to stop wearing gloves and sighed. Now his face _and_ hands felt slick. Add another stupid call to the list.

He spit out curses to the attacking Neoshadows, giving each an individual death, no injury the same. His newest wound was buried deep within his hair, rusting the lustrous metal. He hated trying to clean it; the tarnish always clung.

Descriptionless claws raked between his tensed shoulder blades, aiming for the desired prize. It wasn't golden. Irrelevant. The victory would be the same.

Riku fell to his knees. The new position made it easier to spin about and thrust Soul Eater into the creature's abdomen. The winged blade didn't linger there, its wielder swinging, with lowered accuracy, at the stragglers in the group.

'_This really isn't my day._' His back complained to him, incessant cries that demanded pity. Riku ran faster, knowing this gap of peace would soon fill.

"Shit. My death scene would be cliché." The laughing water from above, polar ice, played within his hair, on his body, as the clouds stole the sky. The rain amused him on a small level; at least it meant a head start on cleaning his hair.

Riku touched his pendant, continuing through the slicking streets. His hand clasped the keychain, pleading. He shook his head, his silver hair spitting sky tears. In the long run, it would be at his disadvantage.

'_Soul Eater will take care of me._'

He grabbed onto a fire escape ladder, the old metal ringing out a treacherous alarm. Riku named it under his breath and continued up the building.

Heartless, hundreds of shadows swarmed the alley, ascending the structure. Their prey found amusement in their easy climb; this lack of a break felt impish, teasing. Riku couldn't contain himself, laughing as he claimed the rooftop.

The storm awoke and offered it applause, awaiting the climax with selfish lust. Riku returned the favour, an obscene motion twisting his hands before they clutched Soul Eater's hilt.

A wave of aureate glistened amidst the black sea of Heartless, the count choosing exponential as growth preference. He remembered when those eyes would haunt him at night. He scoffed.

Riku thought he should plot options, but decided against it. This game was going to end one way or the other, no secret ending.

His friends were lost to him, unable to help no matter the attempt made. He figured they would cry and that would be justice enough for letting him be stupid and pull the "sacrificing hero" bit.

Riku smirked, the darkness staining his aqua eyes. He'd forced them to leave, not willing to listen to the "we're a team" speech anymore. They needed to live and win the war. This battle wasn't worth much more than him.

"It's a shame that you failed your reconnaissance, kids." The shadows writhed under his voice. "Tell Xemnas I'll see him in hell."

Riku felt the shards of his keychain cling to his heart as Soul Eater pierced through the scar across his back. He laughed. Dying by his own blade felt so anti-climatic.

"Oh well." Those teasing crimson tears toyed with his lips and chest. He didn't have the energy to brush them away.

His body felt light, finally knowing what the rain must experience. _Free fall_.


	4. Silver Rain Fell

Theme - Metamorphosis. May the transformation stroke readerly egos.

I suggested this theme to the coodinator a couple of weeks before, but I had no idea what to write once the challenge commenced. What followed was a thought that still shocks me.

Title and epigram lyrics belong to Evanescence and their songs, "Silver Rain Fell" and "October", respectively.

The character 'Kurix' belongs to me, as I have not read any other work with this name or idea. If someone else out there has already created this idea, I extend my compliments for your creativity. But as of right now, in my dimension, Kurix is mine.

**Dedication: **Zanisha, my Evanescence girl

**_-_**

_Constantly ignoring/ The pain consuming me/ But this time, it's cut too deep/ I'll never stray again._

* * *

**_Silver Rain Fell _**

* * *

Riku sighed. The taste of copper was getting old. Fighting was too. He knuckled his chin, smearing the crimson trail. It glistened, hypnotizing. It looked like the ocean when the burnt orange giver of light kissed the horizon in the evening twilight.

His eyes twitched, the familiar sting of tears sweeping across his aqua vision. The memory caressed his thoughts, embracing him one final time.

He waited as long as possible before surrendering to a blink. The glowing light drifted into darkness, swallowed by the shadows of closed eyes.

When the blood splashed hall of Hollow Bastion touched his sight, the aquatic shade dimmed. The Island slipped away; fragments of his childhood following one by one in a game of _Follow the Leader_.

_**Falling… Falling into Darkness.**_

Riku couldn't breathe. Not very well. A heavy weight pressed down on his sternum. Every breath pushed more oxygen from his lungs. He couldn't fill them.

The weight forbade swallowing too. Air and blood intermingled. Hybridizing. They slipped past his tongue, staining his lips cherry red. If he pressed the coloured flesh together, the mixture snaked out the corners of his mouth.

He couldn't stop it. _He was slipping away._

Riku looked up, the Bastion hall now unbroken black. No shading or some faint glow; solid black.

He blinked, staining the aqua shade darker.

He was used to the endless abyss of obsidian, drowning in darkness. He didn't mind it the last few times. He still had his friends, memories to keep him company when everything dissolved into a world without light.

_His heart would keep him going._

Lips twitch, lifting one bleeding corner to reflect his famous smirk into the invading black. The hole in his chest rimmed his hand just right, the edges resting beneath his fingers and the heel above the wrist. His palm sobbed crimson.

Riku always thought the injury looked painful. His mind didn't like being right. His body wasn't pleased either.

Riku cried for air now, his memories so tinted that he couldn't find emotion enough to plead for their return. His body didn't want to suffocate. It hurt. A lot.

He moaned, a shuddering vibration in his throat. The hole sealed beneath his touch, finally ceasing the blood flow. It was an unsavory feeling; one he didn't care to remember. He wondered if he would remember, pondered where the memory loss would cease.

_When his new existence would begin._

Riku lips trembled, a final wave of loss and sadness crashing down upon his body. His palm couldn't find it.

Riku never realized how much comfort he felt in his heartbeat. He felt so empty, so lost. So

_Nothing_

The aqua shade of his eyes blinked out, maybe in permanence. His body splintered beneath the shadows, preparing to fall and be re-written by twilight.

His final thoughts were indifferent. Without a heart or memories to his name, Riku realized he'd never exist again. His body wouldn't look the same, many details altered without care. No one would know him or bring back who he was. His heart was gone, now a Neoshadow, hunting with bestial hunger for another heart.

_Rejected by the Light_

**_Hated by the Darkness_**

He was comfortable in the masking black trench coat. He wasn't sure why. Nor did he care.

The latter wasn't by choice.

He wandered the rain-soaked streets, falling tears cooling his flesh, caressing his hair. Every so often, the Nobody, Kurix, would rest his palm against his sternum, searching for a non-existent pulse.

The loss bothered him, his abdomen twisting whenever he checked. But the reaction was physical. Nothing special.

He kept walking.

Such was the fate of a Nobody. Damned to the chains of twilight.

_Kurix didn't care…_


	5. Frozen Twilight

Theme - Snow. Too bad we suffered a lack this month.

This challenge became a follow-up for the _Metamorphosis_ challenge. So, if you skipped it (why for?), go back and check it out.

Dunno where the image came from. I think someone wrote a story with Riku wanting to taste snowflakes in it, but that could be the insanity talking.

More challenges will come when school starts up again. Until then, ciao.

**Dedication:** Lady Ven'n. I only thought it appropriate, what with your name change and all. I realize 'Silver Rain Fell' would have worked too, but I feel like Zanisha-san just jumped out of the audience and claimed it.

**_-_**

_Empty within. Frosted without. Chained by darkness, I wander in search of my heart. My light._

* * *

_**Frozen Twilight**_

* * *

He'd wanted to for a long time. He didn't remember when the feeling started. Or why. The knowledge was irrelevant. He just wanted to try it. Just once.

Silvered teal eyes glittered, tracing through the shadowed alleys of the forgotten world. The Dark World.

_The World That Never Was_

He knew the shadows were around, clustering in the brainless activity within the darkness. They desired more hearts, a rare treat in the realm of the Nobodies. Until some hapless fool stumbled into the world, they would be bored, shuffling aimlessly in obsidian mist.

The Heartless didn't bother him. They didn't care about t his queer fascinations. It suited Kurix fine. His memoryless desires were not for show-n'-tell.

He shifted his weight onto his foot, still unconvinced that this indulgement would go unseen by the light.

Kurix didn't see anyone else, lurking in the darkness, shoving the Heartless aside. Ever since the _Metamorphosis_, Kurix's eyes were fantastic, gaining range outside of twenty-twenty. Two orbs of glinting metal, capable of piercing the darkness playfully.

Kurix blinked, satisfied. No one would know.

He almost quit. His mouth dried with anxiety, or so he assumed.

Like a child told to meet a stranger, his tongue slid between his lips with a constant shudder. The deep red colour blended well with the darkness, searching in pitiful vain for the light to touch it.

The frozen white tears held delicate shape, not one mimicking the other. Unique patterns tumbling morosely through the air. But so fragile, thought Kurix, each one breaking and falling apart on the maroon landing being held by torn lips. The icy caress of sympathy writhed through Kurix's body, nestling in his empty chest.

Time was up. His tongue slunk back into darkness.

Kurix didn't feel accomplished, happy. He didn't feel. He had an urge to taste the snow not in any state to care why. Just felt like something he'd longed to do for years, even if such a desire was useless to his empty shell.

It wasn't often that the rain crystallized in his forgotten home. The urge clenched his stomach; he appeased it. The chill of the cooled air replaced his yearning, a teasing breeze fluttering his coat and tarnished hair. He continued walking. His steps were musical upon the only pure light within the darkness. Kurix couldn't hear the soothing tune, each note lost to his emotionless existence.

_Kurix didn't care…_


End file.
